Madison, Wis. – Jeffrey M. Anderson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Curtis E. Powell, 35, Madison, Wis., was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to concurrent 87-month prison terms for distributing heroin and for possessing heroin with the intent to distribute. Powell pled guilty to these charges on February 14, 2017.
Powell committed these offenses while he was on federal supervised release for a 2007 federal drug conviction in the Western District of Wisconsin for selling crack cocaine. Judge Conley imposed an additional 18-month sentence, consecutive to the 87-month sentences noted above, for violating his supervised release terms, for a combined 105-month prison term.
Judge Conley imposed the combined, lengthy sentence after finding that a long prison term was necessary to deter Powell from committing further criminal conduct and to protect the community. Judge Conley observed that Powell, who had been specifically warned before his release from custody by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that he would be federally prosecuted if he committed new crimes, had refused to heed the warning. This refusal, coupled with Powell’s return to selling dangerous drugs, gave Judge Conley concern that Powell would “do life on the installment plan.”
The charges against Powell were the result of an investigation conducted by the Dane County Narcotics Task Force. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea.